A Reflection by Reverend Sally Thacher

My summer was filled with rich blessings. In June I spent a stimulating week at Yale Divinity School studying with two of my favorite Bible professors. July brought our son's marriage to a young woman whom we have loved for several years. It was a joyous family celebration in the rolling hills of Oregon's Willamette Valley.

A week later, I set off on the most amazing trip of my life. You've heard countless jokes about the Rabbi, the priest and the Protestant minister who.....Well, we were seventeen rabbis, priests, and ministers who traveled to Israel under the auspices of the Boston area Jewish Community Relations Council. The study tour was intended to provide greater interfaith understanding, especially in the context of that fascinating, exciting and perplexing land that is the birthplace of our respective religions.

Both my heart and my head are so full of what I saw, learned and experienced that I hardly know where to begin to share some of it with you.

We traveled the length and breadth of Israel, visiting biblical and historic sites and listening to an impressive roster of speakers about the many successes and accomplishments of Israel as well as the issues that face the country today. We read scripture, prayed together and shared theological reflections each day. In the course of our shared travels, study and conversations, we developed strong bonds as brothers and sisters in our common vocation and increased our understanding of our sister faiths.

In addition to visiting biblical and historic sites, we stayed at a Kibbutz in the north. We toured disputed border areas both in the north and in the south near Gaza where "incidents" took place within days of our visits. In the Golan Heights, we visited the border with Syria in a place aptly named "The Valley of Tears" where the destruction was almost total, UN peacekeeping forces continue to patrol, and a rusted tank from earlier battles stands guard over the empty landscape.

We developed a better understanding of the dangers Israelis face in certain areas, especially the disputed areas, and of the vulnerability they feel as a tiny nation the size of New Jersey with a population of 7 million, surrounded by hundreds of millions of often hostile peoples.

I also learned that this underlying existential fear grows not only out of physical and external threats, but from divisive internal issues as well. This diffuse anxiety seems to lead to a fear of criticism. A number of times I heard the claim that criticism or questioning of some of Israel's policies amounted to anti-Semitism and de-legitimization of Israel as a nation. Although that is undoubtedly true in somes cases, it seemed difficult for some Israelies to accept the fact that criticism can also come from friends and allies who deeply desire that Israel continue to thrive and to do so in a secure environment of just peace.

After this trip, I will never read the Bible the same way again. What a powerful experience to see and walk the land where Jesus preached and healed and taught about the Kingdom of God, and where the prophets railed against the sins of a society which repeatedly failed to obey God. It was a breathtaking experience to walk next to the Jordan River across which Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, to dip into the water where Jesus was baptized (even if it wasn't the exact spot), to see what it might have looked like in his day. To sit beside a church on the slopes overlooking the Sea of Galilee somewhere near where Jesus fed the 5,000 and preached the Sermon on the Mount, and listen to a colleague recite as if he were preaching to us, was a precious gift.

Entering Jerusalem was perhaps the most emotional moment of the trip for me. At the end of the rigorous and scorching hot days, our bus paused at the top of one of the hills overlooking Jerusalem where we disembarked for a traditional Jewish blessing recited on entering Jerusalem the first time on each visit to Israel. Interestingly, part of the ritual is to say a blessing over bread and wine as they are shared- a poignant reminder of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples on the outskirts of Jerusalem on the eve of that fateful weekend.

Spread below us in the golden glow of the late afternoon was the city for which Jesus wept before entering -- and still has cause to weep-- the city which was the setting for the agonizing climax of his ministry. It felt as if our trip through Galilee and along the Jordan valley also was culminating in this city which is so important to three faiths, a city which has seen so much betrayal and bloodshed over the centuries and even today finds itself at the center of international disputes.

It was heartbreakingly beautiful - the famous golden limestone wall surrounding the Old City with the stunning gold of the Islamic Dome of the Rock at its heart, atop the Temple Mount. We sang a haunting Hebrew song called "Jerusalem of Gold" whose refrain brought me to tears each time we repeated it: "Jerusalem of gold, of copper, of light, Am I not a violin for all your songs."

No trip to Israel would be complete without a visit to Bethlehem or to Yad Vashem, the Jewish National Memorial to the Holocaust. My heart is full with gratitude for the grace of this unforgettable experience.

Thoughts from Rabbi David Lerner

Dear Friends,

Shalom U’Vrakhah MiYisrael (Greetings and blessings from Israel)!

Thanks to modern technology I am able to send you greetings from Kfar Giladi, a beautiful Kibbutz in the Northern Galilee, just a mile from the Lebanese border. The first three days of the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) Interfaith Clergy Trip to Israel have been filled with varied events.

After moving interfaith prayers for the trip at JFK airport before the flight, we had a joyful flight on El AL to Tel Aviv. From there, we enjoyed a traditional felafel lunch in Netanya and then a magnificent tour of Caesarea - the impressive Roman city with is filled with amazing archeological sites that has been partially restored and is used as a wonderful beachfront concert site. Along the way there (and since there), we have been exploring passages from the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament and related to the sites we have visited. Yesterday, for example, we saw a stone with an inscription mentioning Pontius Pilate who left Caesarea to try Jesus in Jerusalem, as we read from the New Testament It was also the place where the leaders of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE) were brought, tortured and killed by the Romans -- something we read each Yom Kippur afternoon in our Martyrology service.

From there, we went up to the beautiful mountain city of Haifa and enjoyed the Bahai Gardens and learned of the origins of their faith whose world headquarters are in Haifa. My roommate, Rabbi Dan Liben, and I went for a run around the top of Mount Carmel in Haifa with beautiful views of the Mediterranean on one side and Haifa’s bay and port on the other side. Beyond the stunning scenery, it became a quintessential “Israeli” experience. We ran into a park where a band was practicing for an evening concert by rehearsing “Rubber Duckie” (a classic American-Israel moment!). From there, we passed a street musician playing a classic Zionist tune from the 1920s and from found a beautiful promenade with stunning views and Israelis - Jews and Arabs -- of every color and background strolling in the evening air. Haifa is known as the city of co-existence and on this evening, we could see and feel it.

Dinner took us to the offices of the Boston-Haifa connection. This CJP program is not only about helping Israel and its not-for-profits through donations, but, more importantly, consists of a true collaboration between the two communities. Each year, they send delegations to Boston and we visit them. Our Billy Dalwin Preschool Director, Shelley Rossman, has hosted teachers from Haifa and brought teachers to visit Haifa several times. Over dinner, we met with the heads of various not-for-profits in Haifa, learning about their programs to help others by providing many services including, child care, offering micro loans and mentoring small entrepreneurs especially, women and Israeli Arabs. The discussion at our table focused on differences between American and Israeli not-for-profits. From there, we talked about the prospects for peace, which even for these Left-learning Israelis did not look all that promising.

Today, Wednesday, we heard a wonderful lecture by Professor Amazia Bar-Am of Haifa University about Israel’s Geo-Political and Strategic Alliances - it was a fascinating talk about the complexities, nuances, and challenges that Israel faces in a tough neighborhood. Most depressing was his assessment of the Iranian nuclear situation which reminded me to redouble our efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Shiluvim was our next stop. There we met a number of Israelis from Ethiopia who were working on a Boston-Haifa program to improve their communities through job-training for adults and after-school programs for children. Most powerful was Mulu, 32-year-old director of Shiluvim, who shared her journey in 1985 from Ethiopia as a seven year old. It was an arduous process walking for weeks to Sudan, risking her life on the way, finally boarding huge Israeli cargo planes with their engines still running! When she landed in Israel, she described it as a dream. Mulu also shared some of the particular challenges Ethiopian Jews face - I videoed some of her story which I hope to make available to you.

In the afternoon, we visited the Talmudic village of Tzippori where Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi - Rabbi Judah the Prince compiled the Mishnah, the basic code of Jewish law, in 220 CE. We discussed how the Mishnah revolutionized Judaism, helping adapt our practices from being Temple-based to rabbinic Judaism centered around study, prayer acts of loving kindness. The Mishnah is also a utopian text discussing areas of Jewish law that were shattered with the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, reminding those alive 1800 of hope - a basic Jewish approach to tragedy and life. I also shared how the Mishnah is the first legal code in human history to include the minority or dissenting voice.

Our afternoon continued with a visit to Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation. I had last visited in 1993 with a Jewish leadership group. Traveling to this Christian Holy Site with priests and ministers who read the story from the book of Luke in the New Testament about the announcement of Jesus’s birth. It was powerful to watch the priests in the group kneel and pray at this site where according to Christian tradition, Mary lived and for me, to get a sense of what this place means to Christians. As we left, we saw a disturbing Muslim billboard next to the Church which said “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.” (from the Quran)

Later in the afternoon, we visited Nahil, an Israeli Arab town, in the Galilee where we met Nadia Ismail, an Israeli Muslim woman who works to help empower Israeli Arab women, helping them find work. She described the discrimination she and her community face as Israeli Arabs. It was difficult to hear of their suffering. There’s a paradox here. Israel struggles to be both a democratic and a Jewish state and that tricky balance affects its Muslim population. Though it is clear that Israel is more democratic than most than Arab or Muslim states (in Israel, Arabs can vote and women have full rights), there is still much room for improvement. She invited us into her home and led us on a short tour of her village to see their difficult situation.

From there, we drove up to the top of Israel - Etzba Hagalil - the finger of the Galilee to Kibbutz Kfar Giladi for a relaxing dinner followed by some time to process our experiences in small groups. Another example of paradox - here we are at a beautiful Kibbutz, just a couple of miles from the Lebanese border. While we are enjoying a perfect evening tonight, we are aware that Hezbollah missiles fell all around here during the 2006 war and if Iran orders them to fire again, this picturesque kibbutz would once again be vulnerable.

Israel - a vibrant country filled with delicious food, majestic scenery, and timeless history, but also filled with paradox.

May we continue to grow from these experiences and yearn and pray for a hopeful tomorrow,

Rabbi David Lerner